3 Calgary hospitals to get 132 new beds

Alberta Health Services has announced 132 new beds for three Calgary hospitals this fall.

The beds will open at Foothills Medical Centre, Peter Lougheed Centre and Rockyview General Hospital at a cost of $15.7 million annually.

The beds will reduce the need for patients to be treated in hallways and other locations that were not originally designed to house and treat patients, according to an AHS news release.

Seventy of these overflow beds will close, but 60 will remain open.

A combination of 153 full- and part-time nursing and care staff members are being hired to support the new beds.